Day Three - not as good as Day 2, not as bad as Day 1

The great thing about working in a school the size of a small city, is that it’s pretty easy to avoid someone you don’t want to bump into. I might have done a bit of skulking and sneaking trying to avoid The One, but it was hardly noticeable.
“May I ask why you’re hiding behind that filing cabinet?”
“I’m not hiding. I’m perusing,” I told Shirley, one of the counseling secretaries as I stepped out into clear view. I had indeed come to locate a new student’s enrollment file to check their history. I just wanted to make sure the coast was clear, first. Ascertaining it was, I smiled at Shirley, who was giving me the eye. I scuttled over to the box of new student files, which happened to just be outside Jack’s office. Though I knew Jack wasn’t in said office as I had overheard a call on the radio saying he was clear across campus in the library.
A staff assistant guided a very grumpy student toward the bench outside the office.
“Wait here,” he said and handed the student’s paperwork to the secretary. It was Alf, the boy who’d come looking for the probation office.
“I told you. It wasn’t me. I don’t know who that guy thinks he saw, but it sure as hell wasn’t me.”
“Watch your language.”
“Man! This is such-” Alf’s shoulder’s heaved a huge sigh and he sat back, arms across his chest, looking completely pissed off.
It wasn’t him.
“What did he do?” I asked the secretary. She peered at the referral.
“Set fire to a trashcan in the library bathroom.”
Alf was shaking his head and mumbling a string of Spanish curse words under his breath.
“That’s impossible. He was with me in the 100 building. There’s no way he could have run clear across campus and started a fire in five minutes.”
“What was he doing in your room?” Jack’s voice said from behind me.
I froze. Of course Jack was in the library to investigate the fire, and he would have high tailed it back when they’d caught the suspect. Without turning to look at him I finished Alf’s alibi.
“He wants to be my TA. He’s going to drop guitar class. I came down here to okay it with his counselor.”
Surprise and astonishment flickered over Alf’s face, but then the hardened cholo veneer clicked back into place.
“See, I told you I didn’t do nothing.”
Jack sighed. “Sorry Alfonso. But next time you’re still on campus during your release period, get a pass from your teacher so you’re not caught in the hallway unexcused.”
“S’alright, Mr. Mackenzie. Can I go now?”
“Yes.” With a watchful eye on me, Alf backed out of the counseling center.
“Miss Mitchell, do you have a minute?”
The half smile on his face gave me some indication of what that minute would be used for, and his posture holding the door open for me, told me it wasn’t exactly optional.
I plastered a bright plastic smile on my own face and headed into the lion’s den.

As the door closed, I decided to take preemptive action. “I just wanted you to know that Saturday was seriously unusual behavior for me. I’m not prone to irresponsible drinking. In fact I can’t remember the last time I was that drunk. I blame the whole thing on Laura. I would have just been happy sitting in front of the TV in my pajamas.”
“The one with the penguins? Or the one with the red flowers?”
Oh. My. God. He knows what my pajamas look like?
“Let me also add that I don’t remember much past the upchucking on some guy’s car.”
“You owe me a carwash.”
“Your car?”
“My car.”
“And a lovely car it was, from what I can remember.”
He must think I’m a total and complete moron. But back to the pajamas.
“I wasn’t wearing any.”
“What?”
“Pajamas.”
“You’re moving a little fast for me here.”
“When I woke up. I wasn’t wearing any pajamas.”
He gave me an odd rather inscrutable stare.
“I took you home in your car, escorted you upstairs, dumped you on your bed, fully dressed, if that skirt qualified as being fully dressed, and left. Does that answer your questions?”
I nodded, quite certain my face had turned the color of ripe tomatoes. The One was now staring at me like a man who was certain I was about to file a sexual harassment suite against him.
“Thanks. You’ve been really nice about all this. I mean you could have just left me there at the mercy of the crowd. Laura probably would have taken them on all by herself, but I’m glad it didn’t come to that. She would have been kicked out of her gig.”
“No problem.” His half smile was back. And so was the urge to kiss him… and troubling enough, this time I was dead sober.
A knock sounded at the door. “See you around,” Jack said as he opened his office door. I scuttled past him and the sullen looking student being ushered in.
Guilty.
I stayed long enough in the counseling center to waylay Alf’s counselor and okay his schedule change. I rushed up the stairs to my classroom. There were only 15 minutes before school let out, and I still had a set of copies to make. I turned the key in the lock and a voice sounded behind me.
“How did you know that?” Alf.
“You’re welcome.”
“Who told you about me?”
“Oh, nobody told me anything. I think I’ve got a vibe about you. Here.” I handed him a copy of his new schedule. “I’ll see you tomorrow at 7:45.”
I turned back to enter my room.
“Hey, Miss Mitchell. Why did you do it? Why did you lie for me?”
“Because you were telling the truth. Now go home, and stay out of trouble.”
“I’ll make things even,” he said quietly.
I knew he would.


Vanessa popped into my room about fifteen minutes after the bell rang. “So I’ve been thinking all weekend about your current situation.”
“Thinking is irrelevant as subject of said situation now thinks I am a total loon.”
“But after having had a closer look at heretofore mentioned subject, I have come to the conclusion that here- that said sub- Oh screw it. The guy’s hot.”
As I recounted the basic details of my Saturday, subsequent Sunday, and my meeting with Jack, Vanessa’s eyes got wider and wider and her jaw dropped lower and lower.
“You bug out any more and your face will freeze,” I said, erasing the board.
“Are there any pictures?”
“Thank the Lord, no.”
“Next time I want pictures. Lots of them. So if he just basically dropped you off at your house, how did he know what two pair of your pajamas look like?”
“I don’t rightly know, but I do know that he was a perfect gentleman.”
“There’s always next time!”
I laughed sarcastically at her comment and rolled my eyes.


The next day I started my ELD One class and as usual, they were rambunctious and a little lacking in focus. It’s an odd class to teach sometimes because the students run the gamut of highly literate in their own language to students pass notes so badly spelled that I have trouble reading them. I even have one that can’t read or write in his own language.
It’s like corralling cats. I’m supposed to keep all the different levels and languages functioning all at the same time. They’re high energy kids who need as much attention as I can get them.
About five minutes into the lesson, a preternatural silence spread over the room. For once, they were all paying attention to one thing. Unfortunately it wasn’t the picture of a pork chop I was holding in my hand.
I followed their gaze to Alf, standing in the doorway, matching each of their curious glances with a cool defiant disinterest.
“Sorry I’m late. Had to sign out of guitar class.”
“Just have a seat in the back for now.”
Twenty-nine pairs of eyes followed him to the back. I reached into my podium and grabbed my bell. My students jumped in their seats as it pealed out loudly.
“Is this an apple?” I repeated.
“No, it is a pork chop,” they chorused back to me.
As I continued on with my pictures, Noe, a short pudgy kid with bad teeth turned around and started talking to Francisco. Without a word, Alf stood up and walked over to his desk. Noe looked up at him with wide eyes. A quick nod, and Alf settled himself back in his chair. Alf nodded at me to continue, and a bit stymied, I did. No one else said a word out of place.
I split the students up for some group work and began my pattern of circulating amongst the group. I started with Noe’s group, as it tended to need a little more of a push to get started than the rest.
“Quien es la gangsta?” Noe wanted to know.
“My new student aide. Mi ayudante.” Noe snuck another glance at Alf who had begun to fool around with my computers on the back table. I let him be, usually expecting students to ask for permission before using them.
I got Noe and his compadres to start their work and circulated to a different group.
“Quien es la gangsta?” Mayra wanted to know. So did Stefanie. And Claudia. And Miguel.
“Chismosas,” I said. “You’re all like a bunch of gossipy old ladies.”
I was tempted to dismiss the image of evil gang banger homie from the hood, but then it hit me. I didn’t know anything more about this kid than he didn’t set the boy’s bathroom on fire. He had been hanging around school after he was supposed to be there, and he was on probation for something. I’d saved his neck, but perhaps it hadn’t been worth saving. Even as I aired my doubts in my head, I knew that I could easily trust Alf and my wallet together alone in an empty classroom.